What is financial abuse?
Financial abuse is when one person controls another person's ability to manage or access their own money.
We understand that financial abuse can happen in day-to-day life. This can go unnoticed if the victim feels they can't talk to someone about what’s happening to them. Although financial abuse mainly happens in personal relationships, it can also happen in other ways.
Examples of financial abuse include:
- preventing someone from accessing their own account, or a joint account
- stealing money from a partner or family member
- putting debts in a partner's name or family member’s name
- stopping another person from going to work
- taking advantage of someone with a mental or physical impairment to take money from them.
Get in touch
It takes a lot of courage for an individual to speak up and tell someone that this is happening to them or someone they care about.
We want you feel comfortable talking to us in private so we can try and help you. Please contact us on 0330 9 123 123 or 0800 313 4321 (freephone) (Monday to Sunday, 8am-6pm). We can talk about your concerns and offer you the help and support that you need. If you prefer to speak to someone face-to-face, we can arrange a private appointment in your local branch.
If you’re experiencing something that’s affecting the way you manage your finances, it can be helpful to tell us in confidence. If you do it means you won’t need to repeat what you’re going through every time you speak to us.
Let us know by logging on to Mobile or Online Banking, start a chat and type in ‘tell us once’ and we’ll record it with your consent. Please visit our chat with us online page to learn more about our secure chat and how to access it.
You can also tell us in branch or over the phone by contacting us
For more detailed information, take a look at our dedicated accessibility page.
You may mind our financial abuse consumer information leaflet helpful. It has information to help you with your finances during the difficult time, as well as details of companies and charities which support victims of abuse.
Keep up-to-date on how you can protect yourselves, and your loved ones from fraud. Look at our security pages.
Safe Spaces.
At Santander we are proud to be supporting the domestic abuse charity 'UK SAYS NO MORE' campaign. Their aim is to increase the availability of specialist support and Safe Spaces for victims of domestic abuse.
As part of the scheme, we have introduced dedicated safe areas in most of our branches. These spaces can be used by anyone who needs them, to contact a support service, phone a helpline or talk to a friend or family member. In the branches where there is no suitable private office space, Santander colleagues will be on hand to signpost to the nearest available Safe Spaces partner in the area.
The support and access to a Safe Spaces room is available to anyone who asks for it, regardless of whether they are a Santander customer or not.
To see where your local safe space is please use Locator Tool